Your Kids, PETA’s Pawns

A seventh-grader organizes a protest outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Washington. A 15-year-old girl attempts to ban circus elephants in Denver. A rash of adolescent-driven, animal-rights-related vandalism hits California. A popular software company promotes a video game about “animal liberation” activists who destroy medical research labs, and in a new game “Clubby the Seal” takes revenge by collecting human skin hides. Is there any doubt that the animal rights movement is targeting your kids?

In a newly updated report, “Your Kids, PETA’s Pawns,” the Center for Consumer Freedom explores how one group, the $31 million People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), utilizes its vast resources to attract children and teenagers — the next generation of potential meat eaters, milk drinkers, circus-goers, and fishermen – to its cult-like crusade. In its 2007 annual report PETA boasts of having “the largest youth membership of any animal rights organization,” with over 800,000 Peta members.